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Thread: Reflection or light on an eye

  1. #21

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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    This is my setup. When I shoot, I sometimes have to hold up the white reflector with one hand, and click the shutter release in the other hand, while holding the dark slide between my knees. But it works.Click image for larger version. 

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    I too have found great value in finding a catchlight from wherever I can.

  2. #22

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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    Just a note on the motion picture lighting: On set, one is typically dealing with a LOT of light, often coming from a lot of luminaires. The difference between the light levels and the appearance of the final image can be startling. Hence, a 250W "eyelight" could be -- though not necessarily -- considerable overkill in many portrait situations. In any case, the idea is often to use the brightness of the bulb or luminaire to create a catchlight while not affecting the overall exposure of the face.
    Philip Ulanowsky

    Sine scientia ars nihil est. (Without science/knowledge, art is nothing.)
    www.imagesinsilver.art
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/156933346@N07/

  3. #23

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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Klein View Post
    The brain only anticipates one catchlight per eye. More is not natural. Just because you're using let's say three lights to light a subject, you don't put in three catchlights in each eye. The viewer doesn't care how many lights you use and is expecting to see only one.
    absolute BS. humans spend their entire lives looking into people's eyes and seeing catchlights that match their surroundings, which is rarely a single catchlight. anything other than that is unnatural. if your subject is lit by a large window, people expect to see a large window reflected in the subject's eyes at the expected position. if your subject's lit by birthday candles, people expect to see birthday candles. a single catchlight when there are multiple lights that should be creating catchlights is as fake looking as a subject lit with multiple lights but only casting one shadow.

  4. #24

    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    When doing 8x10 B&W portraiture I used an XL sized Chimera softbox on the left, and a MEDIUM Chimera softbox also camera high left. And sometimes a GOBO down below to vignette the bottom half or so. A natural vignette. And on the right, a 4x8 foot fill panel usually foamcore. This worked good for tight closeups but full lengths as well.

    https://proshop.timkellyportraits.co...kshop-orlando/

    My Hasselblad Ringlight plugged into a modified Norman 200B pack makes for 80's fashion look used way way too much as a commercial style back in the day. It lights up the entire pupil. Yet the lighting is soft and flat and somewhat surreal which I kind of like.
    Last edited by Daniel Unkefer; 3-Jul-2021 at 08:24.
    Flikr Photos Here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/18134483@N04/

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    ― Mark Twain

  5. #25

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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    While it is not the norm, you can find double catch lights in plenty of famous photographer's portraits including Hurrell, Halsman, Avedon, Kirkland, etc. Avedon has plenty of portraits shot with umbrella catch lights. I think nitpicking a minor detail loses sight of the portrait as a whole. Sometimes the overall composition needs the extra light and the extra catch light is a necessary feature.

  6. #26
    Benjamin's Avatar
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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    A catchlight is a convention and, as many conventions, it is neither necessary nor obligatory, especially in outdoor work (which is an essential aspect of the OP's question).

    Look at Avedon's In the American West. Shot outdoors, natural light. No catchlights in most of the portraits, and they are no less strong and expressive for it.

    Click image for larger version. 

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  7. #27
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    Quote Originally Posted by Benjamin View Post
    A catchlight is a convention and, as many conventions, it is neither necessary nor obligatory, especially in outdoor work (which is an essential aspect of the OP's question).

    Look at Avedon's In the American West. Shot outdoors, natural light. No catchlights in most of the portraits, and they are no less strong and expressive for it.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    But if two catchlights were used in an outdoor picture, that would be even more distracting? It would immediately indicate artificially lighted. It would lose it's natural look. No catch lights is natural. Or one. But not two.

  8. #28

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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    Eye catch lights have a place, depends on a very long list of factors.

    Part of this goes back to portrait painting, how "hot" lighting was once used for Portraiture and much more. Multi catch-lights in the eyes were very common in multi lighted portraits as this is usually a given consequence of the lighting being used. Priorities were places on expression of the portrait sitter, light-shadow and overall composition of the portrait. Some of good examples of this portrait art form happened in the "golden era" of B&W hollywood portraits. These images were an essential aspect of how the public perceived their star-idols as much of all that is much about fantasy and escaping the tormented world so many endured during the vast Depression (monetary "system" crash), dust bowl, war and more.

    Note the multi catch-lights in the eyes:
    Click image for larger version. 

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    IMO, zero issues with multi catch lights in the eyes. They add to the expressiveness of these portraits.
    It should also be noted "soft box" or diffused lighting was less common back then as these portraits were more about shadow, light, composition and overall expression of the portrait sitter. This was the norm-convention back in those days for portraits. Good number of basic portrait conventions were explained in detail in the Kodak "Portrait Photography Book, publication O4" published circa 1960's. The examples and explanations are hot light or non-strobe centric and explains-illustrates how lighting affects shape of the face, why this is done, what accepted conventions, examples are and more. Highly recommend reading.

    ~Notable, the use if hot lighting was very often combined with Soft Focus lenses to produced the desired image texture in the portrait. The other convention was large lens apertures with areas of the portrait sitter (typically eyes) tack sharp, then the focus softly falling off very gradually.

    Then came Richard Avedon, busted that mould and convention by using BIG strobes, Big soft boxes as light modifiers, Big sheet film and using the portrait sitter as a means of artistic ego expression in place of expression of the portrait sitter. Some are very fond of Avedon's ways of portraits, Some are not.

    ~This began the shift from hot lighting combined with soft focus lenses to softer lighting with non-soft focus lenses. Not long after this fashion trend, soft focus lenses flooded the used lens market resulting the $50, 420mm Heilar, Kodak Portrait, Veritar and all others.

    Some of the classic portrait painting conventions were revived by folks like Monte Z, Phillip C and others. This became the photographic portrait conventions often found in the 80's.

    From the previously posted wedding pictures:
    https://www.largeformatphotography.i...hlight=wedding

    This is a crop of the Generic bride portrait.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Note the shoot thru umbrella catch light in her eyes and the position of the catch lights in her eyes (shoot thru umbrella via Norman 200B, one BIG reflector on the side, one small "kicker" light between the back drop and portrait sitter to produce separation between portrait sitter and back drop). This was vast production portraiture back in those days that paid the bills and allow an image maker to survive doing this like of work. Doing lots of this wore out many a Hasselblad and Norman 200B battery packs and more. Yet, this was extremely typical of what clients expected and demanded for paid portrait work. This was the soft lighting, sharp lens portrait method.

    IMO, there are no fixed-givens for how catch lights are rendered in the eyes. What works in the overall portrait expression is much of what matters.
    Beyond this, the topic of portrait sitter not looking into the camera where there is no eye contact with the camera, no catch lights to be found is another and at times more effective portrait than the conventional portrait sitter looking into the camera with expression portrait.

    To bust conventions and norms, means knowing them very well and what to alter and how to alter them.


    Bernice

  9. #29
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    Artists were painting catch lights in the 1600s. Long before photography. Here's one of Vermeer's (Girl with a Pearl Earring) showing a catchlight in each eye representing the window on the left.
    https://contrastly.com/what-the-worl...graphy-part-2/

  10. #30

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    Re: Reflection or light on an eye

    Mona Lisa has no catch lights in her eyes.
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    ~Convention ?


    Bernice


    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Klein View Post
    Artists were painting catch lights in the 1600s. Long before photography. Here's one of Vermeer's (Girl with a Pearl Earring) showing a catchlight in each eye representing the window on the left.
    https://contrastly.com/what-the-worl...graphy-part-2/

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